Those distant cheers and strange scraping sounds you can hear are Harry Hill's army of fans celebrating news that the big-shoed bad boy is coming to the big screen. Oh, and the scraping? That's the badger kingdom logging on for tickets. **
The Harry Hill Movie**, which promises to bring "his madcap comedy world to the big screen", kicks off on May 8 with eight weeks' worth of shooting around the UK.
The plot will be fuelled by Hill's sick hamster. The NHS-spec'ed japster must get his pet to a vet in Blackpool before the clock winds down on his bewhiskered buddy - presumably forcing someone to operate at gunpoint a la James Caan in A Bridge Too Far when he gets there. Okay, perhaps not, but the roadtrip will definitely be complicated by the presence of Hill's gas-guzzling granny (Julie Walters, surely too young to play his granny) and the lunatic vet (Simon Bird) in hot pursuit.
“I’m thrilled at last to be able to tell the world the true story of my hamster’s struggle on the big screen", explains Hill, "and even more excited to be working with some of the comedy greats of the British film industry.”
Those greats include Walters, Inbetweener Bird, Jim Broadbent, Matt Lucas, Gavin And Stacey's Sheridan Smith and Julian 'Mighty Boosh' Barratt. League Of Gentleman and** Mr. Bean’s Holiday** helmer Steve Bendelack is overseeing things behind the camera with a view to a late 2013 release.